Pyotr Alexeyevich Bessonov or (in the pre-1917 spelling) Bezsonov (Пётр Алексе́евич Бессо́нов; 1828–1898) was a leading

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

who collected and published many East Slavic and South Slavic

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

s. The son of a priest, Bessonov was born in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. He graduated at

Moscow University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

in 1851. After five years of graduate work in ancient and modern languages, he earned the government printing commission. From 1864 to 1867 he was

supervisor A supervisor, or lead, (also known as foreman, boss, overseer, facilitator, monitor, area coordinator, line-manager or sometimes gaffer) is the job title of a lower-level management position that is primarily based on authority over workers or ...

of the Vilna Museum and Public Library, besides serving as director of

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

in the same city. For the two following years he was

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

at Moscow University. Having received an honorary doctor's diploma in Slavonic

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

from

Kazan University Kazan (Volga region) Federal University (russian: Казанский (Приволжский) федеральный университет, tt-Cyrl, Казан (Идел буе) федераль университеты) is a public research uni ...

, he became

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

of Slavic languages at the University of Kharkov in 1879, remaining in the position till his death. He published: * ''Bolgarskiya Pyesni'' (1855), the first great collection of Bulgarian folk songs; * a collection of Serbian folk songs, under the title ''Lazarica'' (1857); *

Pyotr Kireevsky Pyotr Vasilievich Kireevsky (russian: Пётр Васи́льевич Кире́евский, 23 February 1808 in Dolbino, Likhvinsky Uyezd, Kaluga Governorate – 6 November 1856) was a Russian folklorist and philologist many of whose mate ...

's collections of Russian songs (1861–71); * a number of treatises on the Bulgarian, Serbian, and Russian languages and literatures.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bezsonov, Pyotr 1828 births 1898 deaths Writers from Moscow People from Moskovsky Uyezd Philologists from the Russian Empire Folklorists from the Russian Empire Librarians from the Russian Empire Imperial Moscow University alumni Academic staff of the National University of Kharkiv